Job 38
:37

Job 38 :37
Translations

King James Version (KJV)

Who can number the clouds in wisdom? or who can stay the bottles of heaven,

American King James Version (AKJV)

Who can number the clouds in wisdom? or who can stay the bottles of heaven,

American Standard Version (ASV)

Who can number the clouds by wisdom? Or who can pour out the bottles of heaven,

Basic English Translation (BBE)

By whose wisdom are the clouds numbered, or the water-skins of the heavens turned to the earth,

Webster's Revision

Who can number the clouds in wisdom? or who can stay the bottles of heaven,

World English Bible

Who can number the clouds by wisdom? Or who can pour out the bottles of the sky,

English Revised Version (ERV)

Who can number the clouds by wisdom? or who can pour out the bottles of heaven,

Definitions for Job 38
:37

Stay - Support; something one relies upon.

Clarke's Commentary
on Job 38 :37

Who can number the clouds - Perhaps the word ספר saphar, which is commonly rendered to number, may here mean, as in Arabic, to irradiate, as Mr. Good contends; and may refer to those celestial and inimitable tinges which we sometimes behold in the sky.

Bottles of heaven - The clouds: it is an allusion to the girbahs, or bottles made of skin, in which they are accustomed to carry their water from wells and tanks.

Barnes's Commentary
on Job 38 :37

Who can number the clouds? - The word here rendered "clouds" (שׁחקים shachaqiym) is applied to the clouds as made up of "small particles" - as if they were composed of fine dust, and hence, the word number is applied to them, not as meaning that the clouds themselves were innumerable, but that no one could estimate the number of particles which enter into their formation.

In wisdom - By his wisdom. Who has sufficient intelligence to do it?

Or who can stay the bottles of heaven? - Margin, as in Hebrew "cause to lie down." The clouds are here compared with bottles, as if they held the water in the same manner; compare the notes at Job 26:8. The word rendered "stay" in the text, and in the margin "cause to lie down," is rendered by Umbreit, "pour out," from an Arabic signification of the word. Gesenius supposes that the meaning to "pour out" is derived from the idea of "causing to lie down," from the fact that a bottle or vessel was made to lie down or was inclined to one side when its contents were poured out. This explanation seems probable, though there is no other place in the Hebrew where the word is used in this signification. The sense of pouring out agrees well with the connection.